


Pack Bonded

by alephdara



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood and Injury, Cats, Cybercrimes, Cyberpunk, Elderly person at risk (gets better), Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25616635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alephdara/pseuds/alephdara
Summary: Lani lives a quiet life, checking the safety of her neighbourhood. Things change when an old acquaintance pops up with a dangerous proposition.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. I Shouldn't Do This To Myself

Lani walked nonchalantly on top of the wall. Her grey fur blended with the city buildings behind her, a stealthy shadow that made her one of the best at her job. Her ears twitched, scanning the surroundings while soft paws took her silently to the least accesible places: the broken ledge around the corner, the fire exit, the head of the gargoyle where Bindi almost slipped and fell on pigeon shit last week. She sat smugly for a moment there, zoomed in anywhere that blipped, twinkled or even did so much as sway suspiciously, then sent all the collected data back to Central. Not that Bindi could see her right now, but she'll definitely be going through the files and will know at once the point of view they were taken from. Of course Lani enjoyed boasting her superiority over her less athletic peers. She yawned, jumped down to a window ledge, and kept on going. The block wasn't going to watch itself.

Her network implant buzzed with a message from Momo in Central. The perimeter check was going nicely. No traps or ambushes, although they still had to investigate a couple of suspicious rat sightings, away from her beat, anyway. Nothing to trouble herself into. She took the distraction as a cue for a much deserved break and chose an estrategic corner of a ledger to clean herself and check her email. Between thorough licks she deleted some unwanted messages (seriously, one of these days she'll have to unsubscribe from the deli automated email service, but not today) and peeked at the usual chat rooms, sniggering at the pun. A post from an old acquaintance bristled her whiskers.

**chats_on_the_prowl**

**Jalapeño** _01:43_

Hey gyys! Whose up frr a jobb? Hig risk, hig payup.

Need me a prooler n a breeker, mebbe a pooncr too

**Boots** _01:43_

Would you ever learn how to write properly?

**Princess** _01:44_

What's that to you?

**Boots** _01:44_

Nothing. Just trying to get over stereotypes.

**Princess** _01:45_

ಠ_ಠ

**Lani** _01:48_

Yo, Jalapeño! Got sumthing interesting?

**Gucci** _01:49_

Hey, Lani babe. Shouldn't mess wit that one. Nuthin but trouble.

Lani waited a few minutes, but Jalapeño didn't answer the message. He used to be like that, no surprises there, so she decided to shut the connection off and keep doing her round. Still, she kept thinking about the post for the rest of her shift. She had done a few stunts with Jalapeño, some months ago, always risky, always fun, always losing something or someone. She had learnt a lot since then. You could say she was now wiser, more cautious, also more distrusting. That's what kept her alive. Not everyone left Jalapeño's company in that condition.

She didn't want to be the next one on the guy's bad statistics, but she also had to admit to herself that she didn't feel very challenged at her actual job. It was safe, predictable, and utterly boring. A bolt of excitement with Jalapeño would keep her reflexes sharp and her muscles in shape. She decided to hear his offer if he called her back. _When_ he called her back. Her shift was ending, so she stretched and got ready for a last look before going home.

Maybe she'll stop by the deli, after all.

*

She didn't have to wait much. A few nights later, she found an invitation scratched on the bark of a tree at a park that was part of her rounds. Briefly wondering how Jalapeño managed to know such amount of detail about her actual job, she proceeded to scratch it illegible and moved on, carefully guarding her features to not show any reaction.

_Aftr work. Bot grdn. J._

Seriously, would it kill him to learn how to use vowels? Lani suspected that Jalapeño did that on purpose, writing like an old timer to appear more aged and experienced. Or just to rile up the trolls, who knows. No one would think that was an effective way to keep communications secure, lest of all Jalapeño.

She finished her beat without any incidents. On reporting to Central, Momo briefed her on a few minor events around the neighborhood: the old lady had a cough, nothing worrisome, and in the tall building there was a new family, baby and dog included. There would be a staff meeting to plan a strategy around them, maybe infiltrate one of the younger recruits. There were also reports of lots of interesting smells from the setting up of the farmer's market. She hoped to get in the scout team for that.

The Botanical Garden was lonely at the early hours. The birds weren't up yet, and the nocturnal critters were going into their burroughs to get a good day's sleep. Lani wished she could get some sleep, too. Instead, she circled the meeting grounds twice, scanning for any unwelcomed intruders. Still no sign of Jalapeño.

She spotted him almost at the break of dawn, climbing down a tree next to the flower exhibition, probably in an attempt to mask his smell. In that case, he should have taken a detour through the restaurant bins.

Oh, he did.

“Yo”, he greeted without looking at her.

“Nice to see you, too.”

The black and white tom stopped to lick himself. “So, what happened to 'never again'?” flicked an ear with a smug air that made Lani want to rip it off.

“Got bored.” Part true, part bluff, and a minimum of information. “Got something for me or not?”

Jalapeño straightened up. He respected defiance.

“You're the best prowler I know. But after last time, I wasn't sure you'd be up for a job. 'S why I didn't looked you up first. Still, I need to be sure you want to do this.”

“You haven't told me what's about. How would I know if I want in?” That was weird. Jalapeño didn't use to be that secretive about his plans. He didn't give you all the intel at once, but still...

“Can't tell much. Still haven't all the info myself.” He licked his paws nervously. “Someone needs to get inside Iron Tower.” He didn't dare to look straight at Lani, but couldn't stop peeking at her, as if apologizing.

Iron Tower wasn't the official name of the building, but they underhandedly called it like that, on account of all the security embedded in its walls. The damned thing was like a Faraday cage in itself, a black spot in their communications network. Nothing got in or out that place without the Higher Authority's knowledge. How the hell Jalapeño was intending to get in there, she had no idea.

“You got stupid. That place is dead.” She circled him, tail lashing.

“Let me handle that. When have I left you hanging? Don't answer.”

She kept circling him, unsure whether to bat him silly, bolt away and never talk to the guy again, or sit down and listen to the rest. She took the last option, hoping she wasn't making the one mistake that'll get her killed.

Jalapeño wasn't the type to embellish a dirty job, she had to give him that. What he told her was worse than she expected, the high risk promised on his original post ending up being a serious understatement. The few points he gave her about the Iron Tower security detail were even scarier than the street stories. And her job as a prowler was to get around all that, nice and slick as if she were sneaking into a kitchen to steal bacon bits. She was supposed to trust a breaker she hadn't met yet to help her through the tricky bits, which didn't do much to reassure her, since the whole stunt was going to be done in the blind. She still didn't know why the team needed a bouncer, though. Jalapeño was managing this as a need to know basis, and that was the part that gave her the chills.

Still, she couldn't say no. In the back of her mind a tiny voice kept chastising her for a recklessness she hadn't shown in ages, but kept drowning under the excitement brought by the idea of getting into the infamous Iron Tower.

Well, she was in, for better or for worse. She'll get out with a load of money or in a trash can on the way to a canned food factory, no middle grounds.

*

When Lani asked Momo for a couple of days off, she expected suspicious looks, a flat denial, or a stark questioning in the worst case. Their inmediate approval almost threw her off the rails.

 _Sure, no problem. You did good at the farmer's market. Deserve some rest_. Momo didn't even look at her, focused on the screens they didn't seemed to leave at any time, day or night. The connection broke off, leaving Lani looking at the city lights.

If she was going to be honest with herself, she felt disenfranchised by this. She knew she needed the time for the Iron Tower job, and a quick answer saved her the ickyness of lying to Central, but such an easy dismissal made her feel like she wasn't needed, easily replaced, disposable. Maybe hers was just an easy going pounce and she was being paranoid. That's how you got when you were around Jalapeño for too long. Seeing shadows everywhere. But then again, some of those shadows turned out to be quite real. Particularly when you were around Jalapeño for too long.

She growled low at her own weakness. It didn't do any good to no one to let the guy inside her mind. _Gotta focus on the job here, girl_ , she reminded herself, checking for the third time the straps securing the drone to her back. Much to her displeasure, at least in here she had to trust Jalapeño with her life. If everything went right, she could quit her job and leave for some vacation. Or at least, to worry less about what Central put her up to.

If the tiniest thing went wrong, well... She wouldn't have to worry about anything else, ever. On account of being pretty much dead.

The low hum of the drone snapped her out of her musings, marking the starting point of the stunt. _Here goes nothing_.

“Ready, everyone?” asked Jalapeño, tapping away in his tablet. “You know what's to be done. Radio silence starting... now.”

Lani looked around her, around the bleak building roof acting as an improptu headquarter. Beside her, also strapped to backpack drones, were Breaker and a couple of Pouncers, no names needed. She didn't want to get attached and Jalapeño didn't want anyone with too much information compromising the rest of the team. Dude was a professional there.

Breaker was a tiny calico thing, barely out of her mother's teat, scrawny and trembling in the chill air. Lani was sure this was her first outdoors stunt, judging by the eager and anxious way she looked around. Her gear, though, _that_ was something else. At least a couple mils in the best tech available braced her head and front paws. In the right claws, that setup was capable of managing a space mission. Lani suspected she was some video game geek Jalapeño recruited, he always got the best of them. Hopefully she'll live to run a second gig, or to go back to video games with most of her fur and never look back.

Pouncer Red and Pouncer Black looked like twins, fur colors aside. Big, solid and scarred, they looked right out of a bar brawl, none of them capable of squeezing into any vent tighter than a 6 piece pizza. Diamond tipped claws and barely visible, fur embedded armor were all their concessions to fashion. That Jalapeño went from “maybe one” to two big scary pouncers told her more about the gig than any amount of warning signs would do. _Too late, girl, point of no return came and went a week ago_.

Her back arched from the pull of the drone while her paws abandoned the roof, falling limply underneath her. Soon the roof fell below, the dim silhouette of Jalapeño a lonely spot losing itself in the city. Around her, her teammates gained altitude, like geese following Breaker's lead.

Lani adjusted her display to show Iron Tower, the black hole in the vast network of information. The ebbs and flows of data swirled around it, like an irised sea swerving around an onyx monolyth. As they approached it, tiny pinpoints in its surface guided their trajectory: air vents, sealed windows, service doors. Breaker did a good homework.

Rule number whatever: no touching the roof until I say so. Breaker fiddled with her gear and the criss crossing network of sensors went to sleep. Pouncer Red landed softly and eyed Lani with a raised eyebrow. _Safe. Go_. She didn't make them wait and made a beeline for the bright vent in her display. Just as she arrived, the vent went dark, popping open with a click. Lani went in in a breath.

*

Lani walked slowly through the maze of air vents, careful of sensors or loose pipe segments that could squeak giving out their position. She used to get amazed at the amount of low tech security she found in modern facilities. But then again, it was cheap and surprinsingly efficient, as she had the misfortune to test herself during one of her runs with Jalapeño.

Behind her, Breaker followed without making a sound, erasing their scents as they went. Kid could grow up to be a good prowler herself, if she didn't grow too heavy and kept those dainty paws in shape. Slim chances for a gamer, but it was a nice thought. Lani stopped at every junction and corner, checking each way for hostiles while Breaker scanned. She was supposed to have a nanosecond scanner, or something that sounded like that, that would keep their probing on the dark from the security tech inside the building. Lani prayed to the ancient clawed gods for them to go undetected. She wouldn't have it easy protecting the Breaker and herself in the case they were found and got the local defenses deployed on them. After each scan, Breaker would signal Lani which way to take, going deeper into the Tower, closer to danger. What criteria did Breaker use to select the best route, that was between her and Jalapeño. Lani's job was getting the kid in and out alive, no questions asked, and by her fur she was going to do exactly that.

A soft patter raised her hackles. She signaled danger to Breaker and stood like a statue in the middle of a vent, barely breathing. _Move along, nothing to see here_.

The patter came closer to them. Now Lani was able to hear its origin, from the pipe right in front of them. So, that way wouldn't do. They'd have to change their route. She hoped Breaker had a contingency plan for that.

Not exactly a plan, but at least a working idea. They retraced steps to the previous junction, Breaker erasing scents on the most dangerous side. Lani didn't like leaving the kid exposed, but that kind of tech was her turf so that'd have to do. They took a side vent that went slightly downwards, into the belly of the beast, taking enough turns to mess with Lani's direction sense.

After a while, Breaker stopped. She smelled round, tail standing up, until she found a spot indistinguishable from the rest of the pipe. Lani smirked, since Breaker looked like she needed to go to the sandbox. The kid nodded to her and went into a trance. She turned round and stalked the pipe, nervous about both: the sight of the dreaming Breaker and the possibility of security coming their way during such a vulnerable state.

She had heard about breakers “connecting” themselves to their gear, something they got from gamers. From what she understood, they went beyond everyone's basic interface and got themselves “into” the game or, in the breakers case, all around the communications network. Usually her interactions with breakers were long distance, like with Momo, but this was her first time watching it happen, and it freaked her out royally. She kept her vigil, hoping it wouldn't take too long.

And then her worst nightmare became real. The patter came back, from one of the side vents. Rule number I-don't-remember: don't touch Breaker when connected. _Yes, boss, we'll die here, don't you worry_. The noise came closer, recognizable now as the rhythmic, soft clash of tiny non retractable claws against the metal pipe. Rats. Well, only one, judging by the sound. She might still have a chance, after all.

Against all her instincts, she went towards the vent junction. Her legs felt too heavy, her guts too light. She crouched in the corner, claws ready. She had only one chance to do this right.

A small nose peeked beyond the corner, followed by pointy whiskers. Lani stopped breathing. She had just a moment before it got her scent, and that was all she could hope for. It seemed that Jalapeño's scent dampener was working, because the guard rat's head came all into view, no alarm yet. She focused on the helmet that covered most of its head and part of its back, looking for a tiny special bit. The bit that could turn a lone, yet highly trained, rat into a node of a vast security network, able to deploy too many of their colleages for her to handle.

 _Gotcha_.

A lightning-fast, diamond-tipped claw tore the helmet in half, severing the rat's connection to the security nest. Albeit alarmed, that didn't seem to cower the guard, who turned on Lani with bared teeth, ready to jump on her.

She was no pouncer, didn't have the sheer mass or jaw bite to tackle a rat in frontal combat. But still, a pouncer couldn't fit in these narrow vents. She would have to be herself, as cheesy as it sounded. Fast, nimble, and lucky.

She batted the rat's nose, hoping for a distraction. It screeched, too loudly for her comfort, and lunged at her paw. Lani backed, which the rat used to keep jumping at her. She slipped her hind paws, feigning an unbalance, and flattened herself against the vent, belly exposed, luring the bastard. The rodent took the chance, claws in front and teeth ready to tear Lani's soft flesh. She waited until the last instant to get it at her paws' reach. Her claws tore at the rat's neck, scratching part of the useless helmet and sending it away from its owner's head. Even better. Quickly turning her torso, Lani managed to pin the guardian's head and grab its neck with her teeth in one fluid movement. She grinned with satisfaction when she heard the crack of the bones. A gasp behind her made her whirl, rat blood dripping around. Breaker was looking at her with wide eyes.

“You're done?” Lani whispered. “Great. Now we gotta fly, kid. Get us outta here.”

Rule number I-don't-give-a-shit: don't talk. Walls have ears. Well, it didn't do much good when there was a gaping rat-shaped hole in the security network.

Breaker nodded, trembling. She blanked her eyes for a second and bolted. Lani ran behind her, barely caring if they ran into a security patrol. The whole network should be aware by now that something had gone wrong in that sector. They took a different route that the one they came in, turning this way and that. Lani suspected Breaker was nanosensing the guards around them.

Her suspicions came true when Breaker stopped dead, looking around desperately.

“We're blocked. All the ways have guards.” She turned at Lani with a sorry look in her eyes. “And there's more on the roof.”

The pouncers. It wasn't Lani's job to worry about them, but she knew their job was to not leave the roof without them. Well, without Breaker. They probably were standing their ground, keeping the vent clear for them to come out. And Lani wasn't up for letting any other teammates to go down for her. _Never again_.

“Give me the fastest route, include the guards in whatever math you do.”

“But...”

“And let _me_ handle them.”

Her display, so far silent as per Rule number fuck-you, came back to life. A bright line twirled in it, bending at corners, descending bits and then ascending higher to the roof, their passage to freedom. Three red dots moved along it. Damn. A bunch of other red dots peppered all over the map, following neat lines. Certainly their bright path had the least number of them. Beyond the end of it, however... The red dots crawled, amassed around two voids, disappearing one by one when they got too close to either of them. _Red and Black_. Lani took less than a second to memorize the map and got back to darkness. Those guys were taking a stand for them, and damned if she didn't claw her way to them.

“Close behind me. Don't stop for anything.”

She ran like a bat outta hell, flashing through the vents in the memorized path. She hoped with all her soul that Breaker could keep her pace, because she couldn't afford to look behind. Soon they will run into security forces, and Lani would have to trust Breaker to follow her instructions and keep her cool, no matter what she saw.

The first rat was alone. Too bad for it. With a strength she didn't know she had, Lani swatted it against the pipe wall and felt warm droplets hit her tail. She didn't hear Breaker react behind her, so she decided quite optimistically that no sound meant the rat didn't recovery fast enough to be any issue. The other two were together, a few meters from the vent exit. _All or nothing_. With a blood curdling scream, she charged at them, puffy tail, bouncing off the walls like a lunatic. She grabbed the short moment where their instincts fought against their training and lashed her claws mindlessly at them, not stopping in her run. A scared yowl behind her reassured her that Breaker was still following.

The grate at the end of the vent was barely enough to brake her. She had to climb onto it to avoid falling to the writhing mass of grey fur and black implants that blocked the roof. On either side of the vent, Pouncers Red and Black were a tornado of growls and claws. Black's ear was a bloody mess, and deep marks flashed on Red's neck.

“Drones!” Lani screamed from her perch, at the same time Breaker was out of the vent, claw marks bleeding on her side.

Breaker was falling to the mass of rat guards when the drone lifted her up, guard claws almost touching her tail. Black and Red rised slowly, burdened by the swarm trying to cling to them. Lani rose last, backwards, checking the roof defenses, praying that Breaker's block on them held on. It did, and they flew slowly away, took a couple detours around the city, and landed before Jalapeño, who was in the center of a small health crew.

*

It was a beautiful night. The full moon casted shadows that moved as the tree branches swayed on the cool breeze. Lani liked when her beat took her to the park, there were so many fun smells there.

She had slept the rest of her time off duty, and licked herself silly during the waking time. She was sure the rat smell wouldn't ever come off. Now that the stress had worn off, she spared some thoughts on her teammates. The pouncers weren't as badly wounded as she thought, once Jalapeño's crew cleaned them and applied vaccines and antibiotics. They even laughed at each other amidst wincing and teased about who had killed most rats. She was sure now that they came from the same litter. The scratch on Breaker's side needed a couple of stitches, and would probably leave a scar. Lani stood with her during the cleanup, purring reassuringly. Even after Breaker had thanked her and Jalapeño praised her for keeping the core of their mission alive, Lani still felt guilty for not getting her out in one piece. She hoped the kid had learned to stay away from breaking and went back to gaming. There was more money and less danger there, if she was as good as she proved to be during the stunt.

The next day her account was fat and her body sore. And yet, she didn't feel like taking a holiday. Just some rest at home and slow, nice walks around the neighbourhood. She'll leave the vacation trip for later. Right now, she wanted normal, boring everyday.

 _Enough musings_. After a deep stretch, Lani went on with her round. There was a new sushi restaurant she wanted to try.


	2. Collective Creation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lani receives a mysterious call from her less mysterious acquaintance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW for this chapter: mild horror, paralysis, buzzing.

The afternoon sun pierced the window. The golden light clashed with the blue translucent indicators that filled the pane with weather data, traffic status and homebound messages. On the outside, an undecided bee scouted the flower menu that colored the sill. Stretched on the floor, Lani couldn't care less about any of that, enjoying the caress of the Sun over her gray fur. She had her own information sources, after all.

As if summoned, It was one of these sources who interrupted her dozing. It didn't matter how many barricades she put around her network implant, how expensive her firewalls, how many traps safeguarding her privacy, Momo went around them effortlessly and sat down behind her eyes like that awkward cousin you find raiding the fridge after changing the door lock. She growled low, aware of them listening.

"My beat starts in a few hours. Are you going to cough up extra time?"

Lani expected some lame-ass excuse, like the pigeon invasion from two months ago, or a work injury of a coworker. Probably Bindi fell during her round trying to outmatch Lani, and now she had to cover for her doing extra work. _Momo better pay well for this_.

She didn't expect the shaky answer of her controller. "I... umm... could you come over? I't's not work related, promise. It's just... I'll tell you here."

Something was wrong. Correction: something had to be utterly fucked up to unhinge Momo that way. Lani recalled their coolness facing the pigeon affair, assingning posts and making life or death choices without batting an eye. Her eyes opened, her pupils blew wide in a blink. "There in 15." She turned her head and chattered at the bee outside the window, to keep up the habit.

Her paws stalked balconies, rooftops and rails until she found herself on top of a traffic sign. Beneath her tail an ambulance took on an ocuppied gurney. A couple of leaps let her reach the ambulance roof and then the balcony in front of her. The door unlocked itself with a clic.

Lani entered the darkened room where a couple of reflective lenses greeted her sadly from under the bed. The chubby figure of Momo came out slow and shaky around the lenses, arched back, yellow fur raised, network implant helmet in highest alert spreading a fine mesh all around their body. The sound of the closing door behind her ran chills through her spine, but she still didn't take her eyes off her workmate. She came closer, purring loudly, letting their implant sort her out as a non hostile. They rubbed heads and vibrated together until Momo's breath easied down.

"They took her. They plugged her in and took her away."  
"Yeah, I saw them." The mesh shield retracted inside Momo's helmet, so Lani started grooming them with slow, deliberate licks, placating their messed fur. "What happened to the old lady?"

A file bundle unspooled itself behind Lani's eyes. Security camera footage, altered health records, intrusive code lines, video fragments, a detailed map of the old lady's movements, and a full layout of the flat's interior, access and retreat points clearly marked. Lani hissed. "Where'd you get that?"

Reluctantly, Momo left her side and went back under the bed. An instant later, a small object slided towards Lani, who instinctively caught it between her paws without even looking at it. Momo came out again, hunched, while she lifted her paw to peek.

The bee seemed almost fully covered in graphene, more implant than insect. The ripped abdomen a statement of the recent attack on the allergic lady. The broken wings, evidence of the lost fight against her quick albeit chubby guardian. Lani lifted her face, raised hackles, a dark cloud all over her. Momo looked away and started to nervously groom themself. After a while, their voice flowed thin, barely audible.

The attack had been meticulously planned, nothing left to chance. Momo was taking a nap when the old lady's screams woke them up. When they opened their eyes, they saw her waving a kitchen rag, weakly trying to hit the attacking swarm. By the time it took to reach the counter, it was too late. The fast withdrawal bewildered him, leaving him with a spatter of dead bodies under their paws and their protegé in dire need of medical care. While requesting for the ambulance they noted the tampering with the medical recods and the deletion of the allergic condition of the old lady.

"Someone tried to kill her" concluded in a low growl. "Find them."

_Make them pay_ , Lani heard inside.

  


***

  


The sunset blazed orange, dusty rays seeping through the tree leaves. Among the branches, Lani's tail thrashed, resisting the unavoidable.

Momo was a great archivist as well as a strategist, a cunning thinker and a leader beyond their duty. However, they had no street smarts. They lacked her understanding of the city underworld, her skill to crawl under the steel and concrete belly of the unsleeping beast. That's what they had her for. That's why they called her. For her to go back there, to the world she swore off. She would know what to do, who to call, which laws to break to find the old lady's attacker. She just didn't want to. She had made a herculean effort to break all of her ties with the darkness when she joined Momo's team. All of them, except for Jalapeño. She'd rather rip off her own tail than let him use her again as disposable fodder in one of his deranged plans, even if she enjoyed the thrill back then. But this time it wasn't about her. Momo's old lady was more important than her pride, so if she had to call upon the black and white trickster, she'd do it.

The last stunt she had done for Jalapeño hadn't been the worst of them all. After all, everyone involved had gotten out of it alive, if a bit marred. Even then, just thinking about calling him made her nauseous; worse than the perspective of climbing the shit-covered slippery winged statue on top of the old building. But it had to be Jalapeño or bust. He was the only one with the information she needed. He knew like nobody all of the things that went bump in the night, he knew the best breakers by heart. She viciously scratched her ears in an attempt to ground herself and tame her fears. After turning on her comm module's encryption, she sent the dreaded message:

  


[Yo, Jalapeño. Make me a solid?

Breaker from last time

18:05]

  


The quick answer startled her mid-jump, almost making her fall.

  


[I thout ya dint do + jobs

18:06]

  


Lani rolled her eyes at Jalapeño's writing. She could swear he did it on purpose, intent on creating an image around himself based on the ancient memes. How cliché. She continued wandering around seemingly aimless, but keeping close to the alleys, ready to jump up to balconies and run wherever the sneaky guy sent her.

  


[No, no biggie. Personal shit.

18:08]

[ :'( n me wth 1 bad prropstien.

18:08]

[Hahahaha. No way right now, dude.

18:09]

[So wht was it fr?

18:09]

[To trace some pirate mods.

That girl rocks.

18:09]

[Whatcha wht mods?

18:10]

[None of your business.

It's not about money.

Some1 messed with my ppl.

18:10]

[SAll rite, dude.

Dont b 1 strrngr.

Ya kno ya got jobs hre.

18:13]

[Happy hunting

18:13]

  


The breaker contact came in seconds later.

  


***

  


The young breaker had grown a bit since the stunt where they met, so small back then Lani could still smell her mother's milk on her. She was longer and slender now, her calico fur barely covering the almost scarred wound along her flank. Lani couldn't escape a pang of guilt, even when it was her who dragged the breaker out alive from the mess Jalapeño got them in with juicy cash promises. _Well, you certainly can trust that fleabag about money_ , thought Lani, seeing the high tech gaming implants the breaker had got with her part of the booty, two steps beyond the latest trends.

Happily purring she came over to Lani, tail high in greeting, and rubbed her as a litter mate would. They walked side by side around the building roof, taking in the city landscape and remembering the heist that took a pair of strangers and had them trust each other with thier lives.

"Won't pull a stunt like that ever again!" laughed the young one. Lani let go of the breath she didn't know she had been holding, relieved by the wise choice. "I hope you didn't come here with a naughty offer..."

The automatic denial died in her lips. If she wasn't sure what was she playing against, it'd be wrong to project a confidence she didn't believe in. Not with Breaker.

"Naughty, naughty, not that much. But I can't promise it won't be dangerous..."

In a low voice, unsure of herself, she narrated the attack in all the detail she could, shared the data bundle she got from Momo and her own scan of the dead bee.

"I asked Jalapeño for your contact info to..." she raised a pleading eye.

The understanding look in the Breaker's eye made her feel like a tiny kitten facing a wise queen.

"Sure." She closed her eyes to access her implant. Even while Lani did it all the time, it felt weird seeing someone else doing it. Breaker frowned. "This ain't right..."

"Wha?"

"The swarm that attacked your human..." she opened her eyes. "They're base pollinators. From the Food Department. They don't even have combat training. Here, see for yourself." A file opened itself in Lani's memory bank. It contained serial number and specs of the individual bees working for the Department and, even better, local hives location.

"Wow, thanks! I know where to go now." She stretched, readying for departure.

"Be careful." Breaker had a worried look. "You're right. This could be dangerous."

  


***

  


Unlike the huge, well guarded, Food Department hives next to the farming grounds, far away in the countryside, the city hives were almost invisible. Small boxes hidden all over town in back alleys, rooftops, and public parks, barely noticeable even when small bunches of agents left them in search of house plants and street bushes, upholding the meager life that clinged onto the sterile concrete.

According to Breaker's results, the hive where the dead bee came from was not far from the old lady's place. She sent her location to Momo, not a shit given about her beat being started a couple of hours ago. _They got me into this, they better take care of it_.

It shouldn't be a problem for Lani to get to the top of the building where the hive was located. However, as she climbed she got a feeling of wrongness. She turned on her sensor module to find a deadly silence. There wasn't the expected muted hum of plugged home appliances, nor the chattering implants of humans or guardians, interchanging data with the net. The building was absolutely uninhabited.

When she reached the top it got worse. Her modules got foggy, her vision blurred, and a sense of loneliness crept upon her, becoming overwhelming as she got closer to the roof. She stopped at the entry, taking a hold on herself. Breathed consciously a couple of times, prayed to the Clawed Gods, and remembered herself:

_I am. Flesh and blood and claw and fur. I am. Eyes in the night and ears in the mist. I am. Tiger, jaguar, cheetah, and panther. I am. The death that creeps in the shadows. I am. The hungry silence. The lethal play. I am._

Her paws took her to a wooden box nailed to the wall, under a small slate roof. Making an effort to ignore her trembling legs, she sat down and washed her face as if there weren't nightmares running free behind her eyes. She knew she was being hacked, but there was close to nothing she could do about it, except washing her face and look brave. _This isn't me_.

A group of bees left the hive and circled Lani just beyond her claw reach. Their buzzing came from inside as well as outside her head, changing in tone and volume as if forming words.

_Eyes in the night..._

Lani stood up abruptly, which made the bees to react in a warning pulse. The buzz in her head became aggresive, conveying without actual words _escape, run, fear_.

_The death that creeps..._

Browsing her own files was like trudging through mud. _Wanna get inside my head?_ She whipped her tail and lowered her ears, a lopsided smile on her whiskers. _Welcome_.

She splayed the old lady images from Momo's folder. The bees waved around her like a cloud. After a few seconds, came the answer _action, attack, evict_.

Lani didn't budge. _Who?_ Asked while showing them the corrupt code with the harming commands that ordered the changes to the medical records and the assault to the lady's kitchen. In lieu of an answer, the bees turned their motion and circled her the other way around for a while, then getting back their original way. _Who?_ Insisted Lani with a growl. The bees alternated changing directions. _Decay, death, evict_.

She stumbled through her files until she found what she needed. Images of fire and flames flooded her interface. _WHO?_ She hissed, arching her back. While the bees didn't react to her threat as vertebrates would do, they understood fire well enough. The formation quivered and dispersed for a while, then regrouped around Lani.

_All. One._

Lani panted in an effort to keep her inner confusion away from her face. _All. One_. In spite of the regrouping, the bee formation was far from organized now, hints of chaos seeping through it, their previous synchronicity now just a semblance, the cloud over Lani's sensors barely thinner. _All. One_. As soon as she got hold of a minimum of control over her implants, she turned on her comm module. _All. One_. An urgent message from Breaker:

  


[Command code w/o author

Untraceable

Spontaneous assemply

GTFO

04:38]

  


_All. One_. A bit herself again, Lani kept on flashing the bees with images of fires and arson, while calculating the distance to the emergency stairs. A last picture of the old lady, to make sure her point was clear enough: _NO_.

She scratched an ear, smirked at her new disruption of the swarm, and walked slowly towards the stairs.

"You know what's waiting for you if you mess with mine again" spat with a courage she hoped they believed.

She trembled all the way down to the street.

  


***

  


"How are you feeling?" Breaker rubbed against Lani's flank.

"No idea" she mused, eyes locked on the plate in front of her. "As if I was turned off and then on again, but... not sure if I'm booting properly."

"You haven't touched your sashimi" purred Breaker. "You need to eat something."

Lani lapped some of her tea. According to the little calico's discoveries, the corrupt code in the bees' program had popped up from the repurposing of outdated software, maybe a twisted turn of their originally assigned functions. She couldn't pry her mind off the circling formation of the swarm, or their cryptic answer _all, one_ , or the frustrating feeling of not knowing whether the emergence of this code was a one-in-a-million unlucky chance or just the first of many. Was it a coincidence or an inevitability?

"Thanks for everything. I hope you didn't get into trouble," She finally nibbled her salmon. It was better than expected.

"Can't refuse a good challenge," winked Breaker. "Ah, by the way, name's Columbina."

Lani lifted her head in surprise, aghast from this show of trust, and found herself facing a fond expression, welcoming as anything.

"Lani." Her world turned upside down, leaving her as the tiny barely weaned kitten in front of the calm wisdom of her new friend. Yes, she could call Columbina her friend.

A muted tap on the restaurant window broke her musings. A bee knocked the glass, lured by the colorful setting inside. Lani chattered at it, to keep up the habit.

**Author's Note:**

> Chat = cat in French. Lani is a girl of the world.


End file.
